Confederation Line (Stage 1) | In Service 1.0

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by gjhall

Galipeau has been the point person consistently from the feds on this project. He was there for the signing of the agreement and for the breaking ground of the western portal.

I would bet it's a construction milestone. It's not overkill, it's 'summer tour'.
BBQs and kissing babies, etc. Good news to fill the newsless summer void.

There's a federal election within the next 12-14 months...

[J.OT13]

Big announcement: we fixed the holes in the SunLife building.

Probably just construction progress. Watson just wants a photo-op for his campaign launch. He'll probably make a bunch of other announcements regarding projects we've known about for years over the course of the campaign.

[rocketphish]

Ottawa LRT tunnel more than halfway done

Marie-Danielle Smith, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: August 11, 2014, Last Updated: August 11, 2014 1:00 PM EDT

More than half of Ottawa’s Confederation Line LRT tunnel has been completed. As Premier Kathleen Wynne took part in a tour of the tunnel Monday, her office released a statement lauding the progress on this city’s biggest infrastructure project.

“More than 50 per cent of the tunnel has already been excavated,” the statement said. “Ontario is investing up to $600 million — the largest provincial transit investment in the City of Ottawa’s history — to help support the project.”

Wynne was to don a hard hat and join Mayor Jim Watson, Ottawa-Orléans MP Royal Galipeau and other officials on a tour of the site. A news conference is expected after their tour.

[email protected] twitter.com/mariedanielles

[S-Man]

Only in Ottawa can you continue to pledge the same sum of money for EIGHT YEARS and still rack up political points.

The dust in the train tunnel is newer than this bit of news.

[kevinbottawa]

Looking at the diagram on the LRT website, it doesn't look 50% done.

[1overcosc]

They're done the Lyon & Parliament station sections of the running tunnel. Also, I think the eastern roadheader is further along than the map makes it look like, the last weekly update mentions it being under Waller St while the map shows it under the Transitway.

They're also talking about tunnel volume, not tunnel length; ie' half of the total cubic metres of earth that are going to be removed to make the tunnel have been removed. Perhaps the parts of the tunnel that are already excavated are taller or something?

Kathleen Wynne's tweet that "Ottawa's LRT is 50% done" is very much incorrect. The excavation of the running tunnel is half done. The project itself is nowhere near half done. Not even the tunnel is half done, as they also have to build the pantographs and lay the tracks in addition to excavating. In Toronto' subway construction projects, tunnel excavation is usually finished 2 years before the subway actually opens. (Of course, Toronto and Ottawa's construction methods are not apples to apples at all due to very different approaches--for example, Toronto builds stations by cut and cover, whereas we're excavating them).

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by S-Man

Only in Ottawa can you continue to pledge the same sum of money for EIGHT YEARS and still rack up political points.

Let me introduce you to Nfld, NS, NB, PEI, QC....

[1overcosc]

I just gotta say, I love how Kathleen Wynne called the federal government to task for failing to adequately invest in infrastructure today... while standing right next to Galipeau.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

I just gotta say, I love how Kathleen Wynne called the federal government to task for failing to adequately invest in infrastructure today... while standing right next to Galipeau.

She has big ovaries!

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

I just gotta say, I love how Kathleen Wynne called the federal government to task for failing to adequately invest in infrastructure today... while standing right next to Galipeau.

Too bad Jimbo is such a liberal hack or he could have taken her to task for paying 29% of transit projects in Ottawa and 100% of transit projects in Toronto and 36% of transit projects in Waterloo.

[1overcosc]

Probably best not to annoy the province by doing that. I agree its unfair, but on the other hand I can see why Watson would avoid being critical.

It's not just with the Liberals either. Last provincial election, he refused to explicitly criticize Hudak over the LRT & form-letter debacles despite having every legitimate reason to be pissed off. Best not to bite that hand that is feeding you, or might feed you in the future.

[S-Man]

Best not to bite that hand that is feeding you, or might feed you in the future.

Solid politico advice, but in this case, that hand feeds scraps.

[rocketphish]

Ottawa's LRT dig on schedule — but Phase 2 funding uncertain

Joanne Chianello, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: August 11, 2014, Last Updated: August 11, 2014 7:20 PM EDT



The Confederation Line’s downtown tunnel may be half done, but there’s still a ways to go before we know how much funding the federal government will commit to the second phase of Ottawa’s light-rail plans.

Representatives from all three levels of government — notably Premier Kathleen Wynne, who was here on her first visit since winning the June election — along with city and Rideau Transit Group officials, were on hand Monday to mark the progress on the excavation of the downtown tunnel. More than 50 per cent of the so-called “running tunnel,” which excludes the excavation for the stations, has been completed.

While not a particularly surprising announcement, especially as the city’s light-rail office posts regular updates on the digging progress, the update is good news.

Ottawa’s rail-implementation director, Steve Cripps, confirmed that the massive $2.1-billion project is on budget and on schedule.

The 441 metres of west-end tunnelling that leads to Lyon Station is essentially complete, and is the part that officials — including Wynne, Mayor Jim Watson and MP Royal Galipeau — were able to walk through on Monday. There’s another 250 metres of digging occurring in the central part of the 2.5-kilometre tunnel, mostly progressing toward Parliament station.

And at the east portal at Waller Street (south of Laurier Avenue), another 115 metres of tunnel is being excavated quite successfully, six months after “unanticipated soil conditions” in the area caused a major sinkhole. RTG appears to have made up for lost time from the sinkhole closure and workers are tunnelling into “good solid rock there,” according to Cripps.

All in all, RTG is making about five metres of progress a day on the tunnel, while work also moves apace on the maintenance and storage facility in the Belfast and Tremblay area.

So happy news all around — hence Monday’s media event.

“Things work very well when we work together,” said Wynne, in an explicit reference to her appeal for the federal government to ante up more money for Ontario infrastructure projects.

The federal and provincial governments each contributed $600 million to the Confederation Line, with the city picking up the rest of the considerable tab.

Just last week, the premier proposed that the federal government commit two per cent of GDP to infrastructure projects across the country, which would translate into $12 billion a year for Ontario alone. The feds were not amused.

But Wynne insists that the federal government needs to do more. While Ontario is pledging to invest $130 billion in infrastructure — $30 billion in transit alone — the federal government is looking to spend just $70 million over the same time period for the entire country.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that the federal government is going to make investments in infrastructure,” Wynne said, but she is arguing for the feds to make those investments more “proportional and predictable.”

Of course, the big infrastructure investment question for Ottawa is the second phase of light rail, which would see rail extended to the east, west, south (with a possible airport spur) and to Algonquin College, from 2018 to 2023. With an early estimated cost of $3 billion, the city is looking to split the bill three ways with the provincial and federal governments. Wynne repeated Monday that the province’s “commitment remains in place,” even though the city won’t make its formal funding request until late next year or early 2016.

The federal government? It’s a little more circumspect.

“We haven’t received the plan for Phase 2 yet, and when it comes, I’m sure that we’ll be at the table,” said MP Galipeau, who pointed out that his government invested far more in Ontario infrastructure in the past eight years than the previous Liberal government did in the preceding eight. “I’m not sure that we’re going to underwrite everybody’s plans, because everybody wants more money than the taxpayers can afford. But we will be there.”

To echo Wynne, it’s not that anyone expects the federal government not to invest in Ottawa’s light rail. But if the upper tier of government doesn’t foot a full third of the bill — a hefty $1 billion — it’s highly doubtful the rail expansion is doable. And that’s a problem, because a 12.5-kilometre stretch of light rail in the centre of the city doesn’t do anything to help commuters on either end of the city (in fact, changing from buses to trains will actually increase their travel time).

With a federal election on next year’s agenda, light rail seems destined to become a local campaign issue yet again.

Lots of photos here.


[email protected]
twitter.com/jchianello

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ontario-premier-to-visit-lrt-tunnel-monday

[S-Man]

Shrillness and impatience isn't always a virtue, either. There's a federal infrastructure fund that municipalities can apply to, and Ottawa has already. As the recipients have yet to be chosen, it's best to keep the bitching to a minimum in the interim.

Given that her government and Galipeau's contributed equally to the project they were standing in (YEARS ago, and not subject to inflation), and no cash ponied up from either on Phase 2, she's not exactly standing on the loftiest pedestal. Talk is cheap, but Ontarians seems to love it.

And the 50% done remark refers to volume of stone removed, or, 50% of the actual digging required. (Not sure if that was mentioned).

[1overcosc]

The distinction is that Wynne has explicitly said she will provide funding. No dollar amount yet because there's no dollar amount for the project yet. Just a rough estimate of $3B, not backed up by any completed EA's.

The feds, on the other hand, are not even confirming that they can provide dollars at all.

In other words, the province has provided funding in principle, so to speak. The feds have not.

In any case, I'm not concerned because politics means Ottawa will get the money when we ask for it. We're likely to have a change of federal government by then. And if we don't, well, it's been demonstrated in the polls how much Ottawans care about their LRT. Come 2015, Mulcair & Trudeau are going to ride into town promising LRT money and the Conservatives will be forced to do the same.

This happened under a previous premier's administration so the comparison is not really that valid, but for what its worth, the Ontario government was much faster at funding Phase 1 than the feds. They made their announcement a lot earlier.

If you want to get technical, Phase 1 did have more provincial funding than federal funding. The city's $900M share included regular federal & provincial transfers--about $162M of federal money and $287M of provincial money.

[1overcosc]

It's interesting how the city will react if federal funding comes up short. The Orleans extension is the least needed/useful of Phase 2, but it's also the most politically precious one. At an absolute minimum, though, Tunneys-Lincoln Fields has to be built. If push comes to shove the city could finance that one all on its own (it would cost ~$750M or so--the whole way to Baseline at ~980M).

[c_speed3108]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

I'm crossing my fingers for an early opening, even if it is limited operation. If you look at the schedule, why would they even make the 2017 celebrations as a highlighted milestone. All construction is supposed to be finished on October 2017 with "an extended period of testing", which if all is going well could be moved months ahead. I wouldn't be surprised if they finish the Queensway widening by spring of next year instead of the fall, two seasons ahead of schedule.

Looking at the schedule it appears the uOttawa and Lees stations will be on the ones to watch as they are blockers between the yard and the tunnel. Tunney's and Bayview are later on the sched but conceivably that section of the line could launch later.

[1overcosc]

An early opening is doable if RTG moves up the start of construction in the Laurier-Hurdman segment. That part of the Transitway is not scheduled to close until quite late (I think April 2016 or maybe even October 2016) because OC wants to delay that closure for as long as possible given how horrific it will be both for transit users & motorists (easily the worst of all the Transitway closures).

If Laurier-Hurdman moves up to the same timeframe as Hurdman-Blair we could conceivably have a partial opening from downtown to Blair in fall 2017.

On Canada Day 2017 we might be able to have a short demo run between Parliament & Rideau.

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

It's interesting how the city will react if federal funding comes up short. The Orleans extension is the least needed/useful of Phase 2, but it's also the most politically precious one. At an absolute minimum, though, Tunneys-Lincoln Fields has to be built. If push comes to shove the city could finance that one all on its own (it would cost ~$750M or so--the whole way to Baseline at ~980M).

That will be up to Trudeau to decide as well (Mulcair not so much since the NDP will likely not win any new seats in Ottawa). Agreed that the Conservatives must match any offers to maintain their seats and cannot dither like Hudak. But if Trudeau says nothing? Also could someone promise more, since Kanata and Barrhaven are both in Conservative-leaning, but no longer exactly safe, seats? (The rural parts are now in the super-safe Rideau-Carleton seat, and Mississippi Mills rejoins the rest of Lanark County.)

[JM1]

Can someone explain why Ottawa went with low floor trams? If we have full grade separation and the platforms are being rebuilt anyway, wouldn't it have been better just to go with regular trains? I would understand if we planned on running street or surface LRT, but it doesn't sound like that is in the works.

European cities (e.g. Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Munich) pedestrianized and ran trams down major roads. Although these moves we're initially contentious (mainly because shopkeepers feared a loss of traffic), the decisions to do so were vindicated and now no one would ever think of going back. Imagine Bank (billings Bridge to Wellington), or Richmod/Wellington (Bayview to Churchill) or Montreal Road (from Sussex to St Laurent) as pedestrianized tram and bicycle streets. Can't imagine it? Neither could the Europeans in the 1970's.